This season, it isn’t the comic book-inspired broadcast series or the TV version of the popular science-fiction movie that have been drumming up the most fan chatter online. It’s been Ryan Murphy diehards who have been screaming the loudest.

In the past few weeks leading up to the fall premieres, the buzziest show in terms of social media chatter, blog entries, Tumblr posts and other digital activity is Fox’s “Scream Queens,” which debuts Tuesday night.

The horror movie-spoofing, sorority-set show is the latest series from Mr. Murphy, the creator behind the hits “American Horror Story” and “Glee.” According to the analytics firm ListenFirst, “Scream Queens” generated a digital audience rating of over 6 million from August 15 through September 15, exceeding all other new fall shows by a sizable margin.

To calculate digital audience ratings, or DAR numbers, ListenFirst crunches show mentions from platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, the blogosphere and even Wikipedia, in an attempt to cull together a full picture of online chatter, positive, negative or otherwise.

Coming up behind “Scream Queens” in terms of pre-season digital buzz is ABC’s “The Muppets,” which boasts of a DAR of over 4.5 million.

Several other network shows boast of DAR scores between 2 and 3 million during that period, including NBC’s reboot “Heroes Reborn” (2.6 million).

But outside of the top seven, the falloff is rather steep.
CBS’s
“Supergirl,” for example, lands at No. 10 with a DAR of about 407,000, according to ListenFirst.

New Fall Show Rankings Based on DAR Numbers (Aug. 15-Sept. 15)

1. “Scream Queens,” Fox

2. “The Muppets,” ABC

3. “Quantico,” ABC

4. “Grandfathered,” Fox

5. “Heroes Reborn,” NBC

6. “The Grinder,” Fox

7. “Rosewood,” Fox

8. “Minority Report,” Fox

9. “DC Legends of Tomorrow,” CW

10. “Supergirl,” CBS

Of course, every fall show is looking to drive viewers to its video trailers on various platforms. The “Scream Queens’” trailer has more than 5.5 million views on YouTube over the past four months, while “The Muppets” trailer has over 1.5 million views, and the “Supergirl” trailer has over 14 million views.

Fox may have succeeded in pushing “Scream Queens” into the top slot by embracing Instagram in a big way, ListenFirst said. The show already has over 200,000 Instagram followers.

Fox’s promotional team published 60 pieces of content via Instagram over the month in question, compared to just five pieces for the ABC series “Quantico” and 17 for “The Muppets.”

“The Muppets” has been particularly adept at promotion on Facebook, with 52 individual pieces of content that have averaged 20,000 interactions over the course of the month. “Scream Queens” cranked out 102 Facebook posts over the same month, generating 6,600 interactions (likes, shares, etc.) per post.

“Now more than ever, programs are leveraging their social presences in order to drive awareness for programs – but in different ways,” said Jason Klein, ListenFirst’s chief executive.

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